Soreness in racehorses has become a serious problem not only to horse racing as a business, but also and more importantly, to horse racing as a sport. The long racing season, and particularly the hard racing surfaces experienced at some colder temperatures and climates, contribute to the increasing soreness and lameness of the racehorses. With the increasing national interest and participation in the sport in recent years, horseman and racetrack administrators have come to recognize a greater burden and responsibility to provide sound horses for quality racing.
The news and television media, have been attempting to focus public attention upon the racing of sore or lame horses as inhumane and as per se bad for the sport. Moreover, it is well-known that race secretaries have experienced increasing difficulty in locating a sufficient number of sound horses to fill their daily needs, particularly in view of the greater number of races being run each year.
It has long been known that human athletes respond to proper water thereapy as a form treatment for muscular and joint related disorders and soreness resulting from training for and participation in athletic events. Similarly, the use of water therapy in general to relieve the soreness suffered by racehorses is well-known to horsemen. Heretofore, when a horse becomes lame or sore, cold water from an ordinary garden hose has simply been applied manually to the horse's legs. Alternatively, a horse with a soreness in its ankles has been treated heretofore by forcing it to stand for a period of time with each leg extending into a bucket or "boot" containing cold water. Trainers and veterinarians in isolated instances have been known to construct crude whirlpooling tanks to provide at least minimum water therapy to relieve soreness in the lower leg areas. For example, one such whirlpool tank is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,060,892 to R. J. Schantz. Units of this type have been utilized at racetracks and have not been accorded wide success. In general, they consist of a four-walled structure similar to but smaller than the usual horse stall, one wall of which can be opened to permit the horse to enter. The wall is then closed and sealed and water is introduced to fill the tank to an appropriate level around the horse. One nozzle for each leg is located in opposing sidewalls of the tank and all are actuated to provide a form of whirlpool turbulence for a predetermined period of time. Upon completion of the therapy session, the water is drained from the tank, the movable wall is unsealed and opened and the horse is removed.
These prior devices have not been found to be suitable and have not been utilized by horsemen because of certain inherent disadvantages, including the inordinate time required to fill the tank and to drain the tank for each horse undergoing therapy. Moreover, an insufficient number and inadequate placement of the whirlpool nozzles has not permitted sufficient flexibility to concentrate the therapeutic water agitation at the precise points of soreness.